Canada
The almost-model
Canada built the world’s most expansive mandatory board diversity disclosure — four designated groups, comply-or-explain, enshrined in corporate law — and it shows: roughly 30% LGBTQ+ policy inclusion without LGBTQ+ ever being required. Canada counts more dimensions of diversity than anyone. One is still missing.
The regulatory framework
Canada is the only jurisdiction in the world that requires board diversity disclosure beyond gender — and the market where our data shows steady organic LGBTQ+ growth. It is also where the world watches whether a strong legal floor can hold against imported headwinds.
CBCA diversity disclosure (2020)
Distributing corporations under the Canada Business Corporations Act must disclose annually, comply-or-explain, the board and senior-management representation of four designated groups — women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and visible minorities — plus whether they have a written diversity policy and targets. LGBTQ+ status is not among the designated groups.
NI 58-101 (since 2015)
Canadian securities law requires TSX-listed issuers to disclose, comply-or-explain, women’s representation on boards and in executive roles, director term limits, and gender policies and targets.
The 50–30 Challenge
A voluntary federal initiative — not law — under which organizations pledge 50% gender parity and 30% representation of other under-represented groups, explicitly including LGBTQ2+ people, on boards and in senior management.
Spillover pressure from the south
Osler’s 2025 governance report recorded the smallest-ever annual gain in women’s TSX board representation and explicitly cited US anti-DEI spillover; the CSA paused its project to broaden diversity disclosure for the same reason. Canadian firms are scaling back quietly, without the US’s public confrontation.
What changed since our last report
Dated developments from mid-2024 through July 2026, compiled for the OutQUORUM 2026 cycle. Each item links to its source.
- Feb 15, 2025 PROPOSED
Ottawa proposes diversity disclosure for federally regulated financial institutions
Draft regulations would require banks, trust and loan companies, and insurers to disclose board and senior-management diversity — notable as Canada extending diversity disclosure while the US retrenches.
- Apr 23, 2025 PAUSED
CSA pauses its project to expand diversity disclosure beyond gender
The Canadian Securities Administrators formally paused proposed amendments to NI 58-101 that would have broadened disclosure beyond women — explicitly citing the need to let markets adjust to "developments in the United States and globally."
- Oct 2025 DATA
Osler: women pass 30% of TSX board seats — with the smallest-ever annual gain
Women held 30.5% of TSX board seats, above 30% for the first time, but the 0.7-point gain was the smallest since reporting began in 2015. The absolute number of board seats held by visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities declined year over year.
- 2025 DATA
Disclosure participation begins to slip
Osler recorded the first sustained dip in Canadian disclosure participation (0.8–2 points versus mid-2024), attributed to US spillover — even as the underlying rules held steady.
- Dec 2025 – Jan 2026 POLICY
ISS and Glass Lewis leave Canadian diversity policies intact for 2026
Unlike the US suspension, both advisors’ existing Canadian gender-diversity voting policies continue to apply — making Canada a natural control group for what happens to disclosure when regulatory and stewardship pressure persists.
The data
The S&P/TSX is the quiet good-news story in our data: Canada and Hong Kong are the only non-US markets without a detection-driven discontinuity, and Canada is the only market showing steady organic LGBTQ+ growth — 68 to 74 boards.
S&P/TSX
Full dashboard →Our guidelines
Out Leadership has not yet published Canadian guidelines. The natural fit is obvious: Canada already runs the world’s broadest mandatory disclosure framework — adding LGBTQ+ to the designated-groups logic is the same one-line ask Out Leadership made of the FCA and HKEX.
See the published guidelines for the US, UK, Australia, and Hong Kong →